The weather turned cold today, the winter woollies are on and doing their job, although as usual my feet are cold. The overnight temperature fell to around 2c which was quite a shock. When I went out this morning it was around 8c but the wind was blowing a gale and it felt very fresh indeed. I still wore my shorts but upgraded my shirt and jacket to suit the brisk conditions.

Yesterday a storm came through and it brought with it cold weather from the south of the country, it’s brought winter to Armidale. On my walk this morning there were signs of its passage. Broken branches and leaves piled up under cars and in hedgerows and of course the trees are becoming more naked by the day. The sun was shining, but there was not too much warmth in the shade, the wind blowing against my body gave me a shiver but as usual my bare legs were feeling OK.

As I stroll along I often don’t have anything in particular to think about, I’m usually just looking around being a voyeur of life. I was listening to Don Letts on Radio 6, this morning he was getting in to some Reggae. The colours of the leaves are vivid and with the sun shining the combinations of light and shade coupled with smoking chimneys make winters arrival almost complete. I passed one house that was covered in solar panels, it was a huge array but it was facing east. Beside it there were more solar tubes which were for the hot water system and they were standing proud looking north. There was also a satellite dish on the roof which can only be for Austar TV which is owned by Foxtel.

Suddenly my mind jumped to another time, another place many years ago. At the start of this century I was living on the Gold Coast in Australia and I ended up working at Austar on the help desk in a call centre environment and it was by far the worst job I have ever had. It was soul destroying, both from a customer point of view and management. From the moment you arrive at work your time is monitored, everything you do has a time code and if you stay in one of those codes too long you get grief from the management. The constant complaining of customers was also a drain on the senses and put murder to the forefront of one’s thoughts.

I was in technical support and I had applied for a job on the Internet helpdesk but I got put onto the Pay TV helpdesk for 6 months and that was just purgatory. The team leader was a dope head, I can’t remember her name but she was a lazy bitch like most of the team leaders there. Very few gave a shit about their staff; they were just concerned about KPI’s and stats. So if you actually helped a customer then your KPI’s would look like shit , other “team members” would pick up a call and transfer it within seconds to make their KPI’s look better. If they could take 100 calls a day and help no one in the process then praise would come to them in gallons, if on the other hand you helped a customer resolve a problem your KPI’s would look like shit by comparison and you would feel the wrath of Khan. The whole system is skewed.

My blood pressure was up, I was angry, I was depressed, I was many things and I just wanted to leave but I had just bought a house and my budget was stretched to the hilt and I could not afford to leave. Money was so tight that one hiccup could have made my whole world collapse and so I desperately looked for another job and then one day I saw a job jump out of the computer with my name all over it. It was for a sales estimator in a drawing office with a company called Stratco. Long story short I got the job.

I got a start date and decided to use up all my leave with Austar, I got granted leave ok and off I went to celebrate. The new job started in just over two weeks so instead of handing in my notice I took my holidays that were owing to me. I had about two weeks leave left to take so that worked out perfect. I put in my notice that afternoon and told them that I would not be returning. I got a reply telling me that I would need to work one months notice and not two weeks as I had given them. I said nothing.

I returned to work after my break and got in a bit early so that I could speak to the supervisor Sasha and explain to him that I had a job and I was leaving. Sasha and I often argued but we respected each other and so this is why I went into see him as a courtesy. He told me once more that I would have to stay for two more weeks to see out my notice; I said that I will go home sick for two weeks.

He smiled and laughed and shook my hand and told me to clean my desk and wished me all the best and I left shortly afterwards.

Most days I go out for a walk and sometimes a distant memory reveals itself, triggered by my surroundings or maybe the music I’m listening to at that time. Memories can be wonderful and painful both at the same time but without them we would not be the person we are today; they have made us, moulded us and sometimes they can haunt us but we can control them and use them if need be. We have plenty time for reflection under the current circumstances and for me I’m glad to remember such terrible times because I can see just how far I have travelled since then. And life now is so much better…………